Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys,

So I fired up my wallet after like two years and it says that it needs to update 700+ days of blocks to get up to speed with the network. I have left my computer running through the night and thought that it will be all done.. But nope, it has over 500 days left..

Is this normal?

I am getting back into BTC after, as you can see, quite some time and I think I have some money left in my wallet that is why I want to get it updated..

Thanks!

Welcome back to BTCitcoin. :)

So, you have covered 200 days of estimated time in one night. Applying simple arithmatic, it should not take more than 4 nights to cover 700 days of estimated time. ;)

What kind of hardware specs do you have? It's normal to take a long time, especially on computers without an SSD...

If you still have a wallet.dat you could import that into a lightweight wallet without the grind of syncing the blockchain.

just use something like Copay and you dont have to download anything.

options: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

I like MultiBit

yeah it is, you need a ssd to sync faster, buy an evo and you're good to go, they are also useful for something else, so not a waste of money at all

Are your ports open? It should make the download quite a bit better if you're forwarding port 8333 from the router to your machine hosting Bitcoin Core.

good to see you want to get back to bitcoin
I think you should wait for sync your wallet it will take you more 2-3 days but you shouldn't have any problem with this since you have money in your wallet since last 700days so extra 2-3 days are not big issue also sync wallet will help you to keep you connected to bitcoin in future since you are back to bitcoin so you will need a ready bitcoin wallet

Welcome back! :)

Well, your computer is not that bad at all! 200 days in a night. Last time I tried to download the Core, it took me over 24 hours for 150 days. Then I just gave up and installed Electrum!

Electrum is your the best choice!
https://electrum.org/

Thank you for all the fast info and good wishes :) Hardware specs, a few years old laptop with an SSD, so I am chalking things up to hardware specs.

So I will either wait for a few more nights to get this up and running or try the wallet.dat tip and see if that will work.

Which wallet do you guys suggest as being the safest and cost effective solution? I plan on investing a small chunk of my income into bitcoin so I hope to accumulate quite a few of them in the long run :)

Electrum + Trezor is the best and safest combination. Just type Bitcoin Trezor in Google. Trezor cost a bit more than $100, but if you are going to accumulate more coins as you said you will, I warmly suggest that you secure them.

A rule of the thumb for me is that if you own anything more than 10 bitcoins, you shouldn't think twice about investing into a good, quality hardware wallet like Trezor.

I don't have an SSD, but your syncing speed seems quite slow if you have one. Bottleneck can be on RAM and/or CPU then...

A wallet is as safe as you make it. most known wallets let you do many things regarding security, such as Bitcoin Core, Electrum and Armory. You have to see whatever suits you the best.

You can have daily spending coins on a wallet like Electrum, Bitcoin Wallet for Android, Mycelium, breadwallet or even a web wallet (although this isn't very recommendable). Side by side with this you should have a Cold Storage with something like Armory, Bitcoin Core or Electrum.

Download wallets, try them and see what system suits you best :)

There have been more transactions recently so more blocks are full and thus larger. That will take some more time to process, but it should be all done in a few days.

First export your privkey. Then import your privkey to blockchain.info.

Move all you bitcoin into bitcoin wallet you like, list here : https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet.

And you don't have to wait until your wallet fully sync.

since you have SSD hard drive i think it is your internet speed that makes it slow. although keep in mind that sync is slow no matter your maximum speed.

if i am not mistaken, you can also download the blockchain separately from a torrent file that is officually being released and replace it with what you currently have and sync for a smaller time afterwards.
just make sure to download it from a trusted place. (it is called bootstrap.dat)